For the last day and a half or so I've been writing statistical analysis tools that look at my list of known locations (as in locations that I have geolocation data on), as well as all of the text locations that have been entered, and decide on the correct spelling based on what's “valid” and what's most commonly used, as well as attempting to statistically extract the correct keywords from larger segments to choose the most likely intended match.
It's still far from perfect (but it's already generating a useful alias table) but I think I'm going to have to take a break from it or this day is going to end Scanners-style… But just a little more fine tuning and it's done, and I can write similar tools for studios and artist names.
I'm just writing some database parsing functions right now (in this case for the dual rewrite of BME that's happening right now) but earlier today I took a break to work on a really quick-n-simple still life painting (mushroom soup and stuff)… All of the technical problems from yesterday should be resolved now, so there will be an experience update today and we'll probably do a double update tomorrow with both today and yesterday's images, as well as probably another page of videos.
I feel like my life is really full right now — sorry to anyone I have an ongoing conversation with that has occasional mega-gaps in it because of that. I guess it feels so full because not only do I have father, boss, and worker bee stuff that pretty much consumes the day, but every possible crack gets filled up with something, be it painting, building, playing with remote control cars (which I'm actually doing for work reasons, but that's another story), whatever, so there's rarely a dull moment.
That said, at the same time, I feel like I'm not doing enough. I know that I'm getting a lot done, but I'm not sure that all of it can have great stories told about it, and as I've written here before, I believe that one of the goals of life should be the ability to tell great stories about it. Ah, the philosophy of the Dudesons.
Meh. One day in the future, hopefully not too long, I'll be able to get the earthship built, have a big garden, a big workshop, and lots of land to play on… And maybe someone special to make this compound of invention, construction, and art a little less lonely.
Sorry I haven't updated today. There have been DNS issues (including some with the mailserver), and I won't be able to access things properly until midnight. Anyway, I imagine this guy from Cypress (I think that's what the CY sticker means) doesn't really how childishly funny his licenseplate is.
Anyway, other than that, played with some cars and did a brief interview…
I figure since I have so many crazy projects on the go that I ought to create a subject type for it. Anyway, when I saw Clay Skeets at BMEfest (watch for thousands of images later today in the gallery; I'll post about that later), he asked me about the old Warlock guitar that he gave me years ago.
It doesn't stay in tune very well so I'm retrofitting it as a USB controller, so the computer can tell which frets are in play, and when the string is struck by the pick… I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to hack a parallel cable, hack a keyboard, hack a multi-channel DA converter, or put together something custom. I wish I had more time, money, and/or partners in crime and invention.
In any case, with this project, the end goal is to build a guitar that still works as a real guitar even if poorly, just to retain feel (if possible — I'm thinking of using the strings as a part of the switch mechanism since it's an easy metal-on-metal contact point), andI'll write some accompanying software that let's you input tablature files and play a far more realistic version of the
Guitar Hero video game.
I also need to build a friend for Johnny Boner…
